


Capulus.

by eikvaren



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Coffee, Domestic, Established Relationship, F/F, Genderswap, Halloween Themes, Holding Hands, Pumpkin carving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 22:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16438397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eikvaren/pseuds/eikvaren
Summary: Dan and Phil are women called Danni and Feli. They go out on an October date, then carve punpkins.





	Capulus.

_“It_ _was a soft October night,”_

_T.S. Eliot, from The Complete Poems And Plays: 1909 - 1950; ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’_

 

_\---_

 

“You know I hate Costa.” Danni says, kicking a stone off from the pavement. She's looking down, her right hand is tucked deep into the depths of her coat pocket, being a chilly October day—not too far off from Halloween—in London. Her left is tightly interlocked with Feli's. It's the same kind of warmth.

"I do.” Feli replies. “We're not going to Costa.”

Danni glances up. “Where?”

“It's a new one—local.” She smirks. Danni has been massively getting into supporting family owned shops as of late—wanting to try them all, which is particularly hard, even on both their salaries, but it's twice a monthly thing—and it's for sure that she'll be impressed by this.

“Fuck—really?” She asks, breaking the grasp between their hands and holding her palm open, a moment later, for a high-five.

Feli bursts into laughter. “Yes, Christ. I researched them earlier. I’m a brilliant girlfriend, yeah?” She returns the attempt of a high-five. “Working my days away researching local coffee shops for you. It's only a few minutes from here.”

“What's it called?”

“Camden… Coffee House. I think.”

“Oooh, nice. Very creative name for a coffee house in Camden.”

“Shut up, I tried. Should we walk to the gardens afterwards, or no?”

“Never denied you trying.” Danni sticks out her tongue, her breath going smokey against the cool air. “And yeah. Martin’s?”

“Mhmm,”

“K.”

This is when a rather loud sort of truck passes by, revving its engine and causing Feli to half-jump backwards from the noise, immediately going back to hold tight to Danni's hand.

She doesn’t say anything, but faces her right two fingers—pulled rather brashly from her pocket—up in the direction the truck had been off to, grimacing. “Why are people such arses. Fix your fucking truck, mate, then it wouldn't sound like fifty screeching demons to everyone within a thousand yards.” Then she turns back to Feli, “Sorry, babe.”

“S'fine. Thank you.” She turns toward a door, and a sign. “We're here.”

“Live life, love coffee.” Danni reads out. “Valid.”

Feli laughs, “God, that's just me, isn't it?”

“It is.”

A few minutes later, they're looking over the menu, preparing to order.

“If I actually order a coffee now, I won't be able to sleep until like, literally, half past three.”

“So what? I'm gonna order coffee.” Feli pulls in closer, lowering her voice. “Then we can have a movie night.” A moment later, to the storefront: “I'll have the Gingerbread Latte.”

“Short or long?” The worker asks.

“Long.”

“Tsk,” Danni says. “You and your sugar. I'll have a Moroccan Peppermint Tea. Thanks.”

“That'll be four-pound-eighty," It’s a young man working the till, probably no more than seventeen or eighteen. He shoots a glance at Danni. “But I can take off a pound for a kiss on the cheek."

It's a joke thing, they both think. He plays an over the top wink that comes out more like Feli's do—looking like a blink, that is—and she stares back at him, flushed. Feli can read this as an annoyed look, perhaps maybe that bit angry, but it's so clearly read to the boy as an honest want. He leans in closer, whispers: “I mean, if you're properly into it, I can take your number.”

“No. Thanks.” She says. “Just the drinks. Oh, and toast, with chocolate spread. For her.” She references to Feli. “To go.”

“Extra pound.” He stares back.

“Yeah.”

“Bloody wanker,” Danni is saying, as soon as they've stepped outside. “Should've knocked his teeth in.”

“You chat so much shit about fighting people, for someone who literally can’t hurt a fly. You force me to open the window to let them out.” Feli says. “You're right though, he was a wanker.”

“Flies are harmless,” She says. “It's a bad analogy. I'm not gonna hurt something that hasn't hurt me, and is only mildly annoying. It should be, like, ‘wouldn't hurt a ten-stone bear coming at you with a knife.’”

“You wouldn't hurt the bear, either.” Feli points out.

“And what about it?” Danni takes a sip of her drink, then frowns. “Still hot.”

“Mm. Are we still going to St. Martin's, or should we head back to the flat?”

“Nah, I wanna go. It's nice out.”

“It's five degrees.”

“I like this weather. It’s my aesthetic.”

Feli laughs, “Yeah, that is true.”

“And,” Danni says, “We need to pick out the pumpkins. For carving.”

“We do.” She nods. “I'm gonna make a… dunno, yet.”

“Better sort it out.”

Eight minutes later, they're walking through the front paths of St. Martin's Gardens. Both left and right hands are holding closely, keeping them from the cold, and their wrong hands are on their nearly-finished drinks.

“It's weird,” Feli says, “That we're walking in a garden-park thingy that has dead people in the ground. Like—they're just… here.”

“What'd you think is weird about that?”

“Dunno. Like, um, it's just… so public. I bet they didn't think that one day there'd be a bunch of random people walking over them. Or maybe they did, I dunno when they were—when they died. Maybe they were sixties disco people.”

“Doubt it. But yeah, you're right. It's weird. Like, the world just keeps on existing after you’re gone. And then there’s two random women walking all over your grave, whilst they drink locally-made latte and tea. That wasn't real for them. I wonder if my grave will get walked all over by aliens, or what.”

“Definitely aliens. Who drink lava in to-go cups. But don't get too extensional on me. We're probably not even gonna die. Either live forever, or get our consciousness turned into TV's an’ stuff. It's gonna be the future.”

“Truly.”

There's a few minutes of comfortable silence. Feli runs her thumb against Danni's fingers, over and over again. Her knuckles are smooth, flawless. She must've started stealing Feli's moisturizer again, then. She refuses to buy her own, says it's a waste of money on female beauty expectations. Feli had argued that it's highly unlikely anyone but her will ever hold Danni’s hands again, yet alone anyone with expectations for them, but she didn't care to hear about it. She said that it's not the point. Arguing with her proves useless, more often than not. But Danni always likes the way Feli's hands feel on her.

“Hey,” Danni speaks up. “Isn't it strange that almost all the people buried here, would hate us for holding hands? And for the other stuff.”

“Yeah. But they were dumbarses, anyway.”

Danni bursts out into laughter, the bright thing.

“What? It's true! They were!”

“You're right, they were. Dumbarses. And they're dead, anyway. So we won.”

Feli looks to Danni, tilting her head a slight ways to the right. She holds both their hands together in the air, as a triumphed victory. “Hear that everyone? We won!” She says, at a normal speaking volume.

**

They decide to head to Lidl Market, and arrive a few minutes after the fact. It's reviewed to be a good place for buying budget shopping.

Danni and Feli drop their hands as they walk around to the front produce section, and their small selection of pumpkins. The entire place smells very vaguely of tomatoes, but a sweet-sour mixed kind. It's not unpleasant.

“Now,” Feli says. “You should think about the shape, what you're gonna carve. Like ghosts get the long pumpkin, landscapes get the really plump ones.”

Danni smiles. “Do you think I've never carved a pumpkin before? I’m an expert. Not a great artist, though. What’d you think I should do?”

“Dunno. Maybe a witch? Or scarecrow.” Says Feli, picking up one of the pumpkins and feeling around it.

“Fuck off, I'm not talented. Like, something simple.”

“Vampire face? With fangs. Oooh, and blood. Actually, I might do that. Don't steal my idea.”

“Alright, then. I'll do… should I just do a ghost?”

“Nah, that's basic,” Feli frowns. “Do something cool. Do like—oh! Do a dog. Definitely. Make a dog face on the pumpkin, or like, a cat. Make a werewolf if you wanna be proper spooky.” She picks up a long-shape pumpkin, with a curly stem. “This one. Plus, it looks like you. We could try recreating each others faces on pumpkins?”

“I'll stick with the dog. Don't wanna, like, monumentally offend you with my general lack of carving skills.”

“Pffft, stop saying that. You're already better at drawing than me. I saw the sketches you did when you were in uni.”

“The one sketch I did—in paint—for my laptop background, you mean?”

“I liked it! It was good.” It had been a lovely sketch. Feli had been visiting Danni at her university’s halls when she'd seen it opened, and was immediately impressed. It wasn't art-gallery level, but something endearing and unique. However, the hobby had dropped as soon as it began, as so many seem to do.

“Sure, Lester, you keep telling yourself that.”

“Shush. Now, pick your doggo pumpkin and then the real fun can begin.”

“Dinner, and then scooping out seed-y guts until three in the morning.”

“Yee.”

***

At half past eight, they're both sitting on the kitchen counter, with a plastic cup of Ramen in hand, eating dinner. There's cheap wine glasses filled with Ribena beside them. They hadn't felt like properly cooking tonight.

They have Origin of Symmetry, the album by Muse, playing on a playlist from Feli's mobile. There's a few of their older scented candles lit around the room; Halloween Sweets, is the stated theme. It makes the flat smell distinctively as raw sugar.

It's a relaxing vibe of an evening. Very slow, very comforting, very them.

“Shit.” Danni says, as what Feli assumes to be a forkful of her noodles falls to the floor.

Feli quirks her eyebrow. “You still gonna eat that?”

“Obviously.” She rolls her eyes. “We need a cleaning rag.”

“Later. Here, you can have a bite of mine.” Feli holds her own fork into the air in front of Danni's mouth.

She takes the forkful in one go. “Mmm. Thank.”

“Hmmmm,"

“We should start like, eating somewhere other than a counter. Maybe the sofa?” Says Danni.

“We should. But it's tradition now, kinda.”

“Only since our table broke? That was like, three weeks ago.”

Feli frowns. “Tradition. At least until we buy a new table.”

“We could probably—” Danni’s cut off by the familiar sounds of Bliss starting to play. “Oh. Bliss.”

“Should we dance to it?” She asks.

Danni replies by putting down her Ramen, and hopping from the countertop, holding out a hand for Feli to follow along.

“Alright.”

Feli’s never been one to pay attention to the lyrics of songs, at least not on the first few go's. She likes the feeling, the instruments, the general sound it gives off. This was never one of her particular favourites—good, but not the best—until she'd met Danni, when they'd been younger, and was told the song reminded her of them. They proclaimed it to be their song that same night.

“Hands on hips.” Danni says. She's always been a much more coordinated, talented dancer than Feli; not surprisingly.

“Yup.”

“And on the neck,” She says, as Feli feels a cold palm press against her neck.

“We don't always need to slow dance.”

“Shhh, it's fun.”

“Stressful,” She corrects.

"Nah,"

“Both.”

Danni doesn't reply to this, moving Feli's body slowly along with hers, slowing down and speeding up par the beat of the music. Slow dancing is fun, she's always right. It's just difficult to maneuver properly in only a few minutes.

“Everything about you resonates happiness, now I won't settle for less.” She can hear Danni whispering along with the words.

It's a very strange tradition, but they have a lot of strange traditions.

***

“Okay.” Feli says, laying out the last newspapers on the wooden floor of their lounge. “It’s ready.”

“K. Gimme a second, these are fucking heavy.”

She laughs. “Want some help? You don't have to carry both.”

“Well, here we are now.” She says, holding the pumpkins in either arm as she enters from the kitchen. “You can get the knives. Don't kill or maim yourself, though. Or else I'll be angry.”

“Promise I won't.”

After Feli's retrieved the knives, and they carve open the tops of their pumpkins, it's officially time to gut them out.

Danni shoves her hand in, and Feli cringes.

“I like the feel of it.” She says. “It's like… slimey. Between your fingers.”

“It feels gross! Like, it's like full of people's eyeballs except… worse. And there’s seeds. It's like the satisfying Instagram slime's evil cousin. And it gets your hands all sticky and wet. Bad.”

“It’s squishy, though. It's like, satisfying. Kinda. I thought Mrs. Slime Queen would appreciate pumpkin guts.”

"Nah, s'not soft or rubbery.”

“Nature's slime, Feli.”

“Ew, no. Don't say that.” She sticks out her tongue, exaggerates, pseudo-shivers.

“Tsk, fine. I'll just scoop out your pumpkin for you. More fun for me. Or you could use a spoon-thingy?”

“Too much work,”

“This is all just a ploy to get me to do your dirty work, is it? I'll make sure to slap your face with the excess.” Danni perks herself up at this. “Ooh! We can do roasted pumpkin seeds now. My nana made them when I was a kid, they were the best thing. I'll ask for her recipe.”

"What are they like?”

“Like—pumpkin-y a bit. And salty. Basically you just take out the seeds, sprinkle salt all over them, and then put them in the oven, to be honest. But they're really good, trust me.”

“K, I'll trust you on that. And the pumpkin guts.”

“Thanks. Yours is done, so you can design your weird vampire-face thing. There's a green Sharpie.”

"Alright. It's gonna be like—should it have proper eyes or just triangles?”

“I reckon proper eyes would be more terrifying.” Danni says.

“True.”

The whole flat smells like freshly cut pumpkin and sugar-sweets, now. It's a very Halloween thing—which reminds her that they need to catch up on American Horror Story after this, or tommorow.

They haven't celebrated Halloween at all in a good few years, mostly getting distracted. Danni had been very insistent on it the years when she’d been in university, and would ask Feli out to all the parties she’d really been too old for, and gotten them both drunk on flavoured rum. There was never Trick-or-Treaters, but sometimes they'd buy all the discount sweets on November first and make themselves sick. Little traditions, for them. She figures they still have plenty of life together to properly celebrate holidays, but window pumpkins lit on the night of Halloween can never hurt anything.

“My doggo design is complete.” Announces Danni, turning her pumpkin towards Feli. “Now we carve.”

“Shit—that is actually good. We have a competition.”

The design is little dogs eyes, angry eyebrows, with a nose, a drooling tongue, and sharp teeth sticking out from both ends. There's floppy-looking ears far left and far right, and blood running down the mouth. Feli realises the drool might actually be intended blood, too.

Her design is a tad more simplistic. Triangle eyes, two slits for a nose—like Voldemort—and a straight line with two sharpened teeth. She figures it'll look more interesting when there's candlelight from inside.

“Crap... I really like yours. You choose a good pumpkin shape. Very nice.”

“Do I win, then?”

“S'not a competition, but okay. You can win a kiss.” Danni leans forward, holds a hand behind Feli's head, and presses their mouths together, just for a few moments. “There. Now we gotta figure out how to carve them without bleeding everywhere."

"Right."

*

"Wait a second, I need to take off my bra first.” Feli says, standing in only her underwear and a top.

“What the fuck, you kept your bra on the whole day? Absolute masochist.”

Feli flicks out her tongue at this. “I like the satisfaction of finally relaxing in bed with you. It's not as much if I was already like… half relaxed.”

“Pain kink.”

“That's you, babe.”

Danni just groans at this, shoving her face into a pillow. “Hurry up. The documentaries already put on, I wanna watch.”

"It's the fish sex one?”

“Yeah, fish sex one.”

“Nice.” Then, “Shove over.”

A few minutes of uncomfortable shifting of positions later, Danni's cuddled up into Feli’s chest against her heartbeat, Feli wrapping and unwrapping Danni’s curls around her fingers.

“Hmm, this is comfy. And we walked a lot today. M’gonna fall asleep.” Danni says, her voice gone soft.

“We’re in bed, either way. It’s fine.”

“Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> when i googled for feminine versions of philip 'feli' was one of the options that came up and my friend said it was valid so you can't tell me it's a weird name
> 
> written for the halloween phan flash fic fest (a bit)
> 
> tumblr is @phansb


End file.
